Vodafone boss: US needs to share any Huawei evidence with Europe

[BARCELONA] The United States needs to share any evidence it has about Huawei with European authorities so they can take a common view about whether to use the Chinese group's technology in their networks, the head of Vodafone said on Monday.

Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spy operations.

Along with Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia , the company is one of the world's largest mobile network gear suppliers.

Nick Read, chief executive of Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile operator, told reporters in Barcelona on Monday that cutting the number of network suppliers to two from three would damage the industry and economic growth.

"We need to have a fact-based risk-assessed review," Read said.

"People are saying things at the moment that are not grounded, I'm not saying that is the case for the US because I have not met them directly myself so I have not seen what evidence they have, but they clearly need to present that evidence to the right bodies throughout Europe."

He added that everybody he was meeting at a national level in Europe was making it clear that they were going through a fact-based assessment.

Vodafone said last month it would pause the deployment of Huawei's equipment in its core networks in Europe until it had clarity from governments on any risks.

REUTERS